I keep reading posts and blog entries related to this topic and it frustrates me. I have been working in IT for many years and recently completed a new degree focused around Information Systems and programming as I want to move from IT into development.
I find that most of the job postings without the Senior keyword in their title are looking for people with 5-7 years of programming specific experience and many of the senior positions have phrases like "Javascript, CSS, jQuery would be a plus" which I have but I am certainly no Senior Programmer.
I have used Perl and VB in my past life as an IT worker for 10 years and after learning C/C++, C# and ASP.NET I feel like a total noob. Until I finally get a job firmly in the software development role where 0% of my time is spent managing systems I feel like I am a very junior programmer.
I quess my biggest problem in looking for a position is how much of my IT scripting experience to I count toward actual programming experience and where are people drawing the line with the use of "Senior"?
Great I can write all the simple apps people talk about using as interview questions but I can't get a call for the interview as I have 10+ years of non-programming specific IT experience.

I find it difficult to believe, but the reports keep pouring in via Twitter and email: many candidates who show up for programming job interviews can't program. At all. Consider this recent email from Mike Lin: The article Why Can't Programmers... Program? changed the way I did interviews. I ...